Barrera comments on Marquez

By Mark Havey: When Juan Manuel Marquez landed the bomb that knocked out the long reigning Pound 4 Pound king Manny Pacquiao, the world seemed in shock. The two men had been rivals for so long and had faced each other 3 times. Each time Marquez closely fell short of getting his hand raised. But whilst some were shocked, others were suspicious way before the bell rang.

Boxers, MMA fighters and fans have since come out to say that the skills and physique of Marquez were unfeasible. His coach has also raised eye brows as a well known steroid pusher. Marco Antonio Barrera is one of those people. He has fought and lost to both Marquez and Pacquiao. Philboxing.com quoted him saying “when Marquez dropped Pacquiao I said it’s terrible because he (Marquez) has no good punch. When he dropped Pacquiao in the 3rd round I said what happened?”

Sunstar.com quoted “Marquez doesn’t have power. I don’t know what happened. Everyone can see the difference in Marquez today, and Marquez in the past”.

So is it impossible for Marquez to gain that muscle at his age. When I saw him on the scales I was initially suspicious. But then I saw clips of him training. It made sense straight away. Marquez and his team put alot of work into strength and conditioning.

It seems all too easy for people to forget the impeccable reputation of the Mexican legend. Marquez has never given us reason to think he is anything but natural. He even drank his own urine at one time in his career.

What about the power? I say what power? Marquez has never been known as a hard puncher but has impressive knockouts on his record due to his timing, speed and counter strikes. Was the punch any different? Timing knocked out Manny Pacquiao, not power. it’s the punches you don’t see that hurt you. Pacquiao himself has said that Marquez didn’t seem any stronger than usual and he believes he was clean.

Whatever your opinion, it’s likely that you feel strongly about it. I’m not saying Marquez didn’t cheat, and I’m not saying did. I don’t feel 100% on either. But in my eyes the facts and the words of Pacquiao suggest he didn’t. Pacquiao was just unlucky to get caught with a perfectly timed shot, which is the result of Marquez getting more and more used to Pacman’s style with each fight. It’s a shame that Marquez is having his greatest win tarnished. It seems he can only put it to bed with a rematch.